Selective solid-phase extraction of atrazine from agricultural environmental water samples using high permeability nanoporous carbon derived from melamine-based polybenzoxazine followed by HPLC-UV

ABSTRACT

For the first time, a highly permeable nanoporous carbon derived from melamine-based polybenzoxazine (NPC-PBZ-m) was used as the solid-phase extraction sorbent for trace analysis of atrazine (ATZ) herbicide in environmental water samples as a pre-treatment to enhance detection for high-performance liquid chromatography. Extraction performance was investigated using an agricultural field matrix-water sample. The parameters affecting the solid-phase extraction efficiency were carefully investigated. The optimisation conditions were determined as 200.0 mg of sorbent with an adsorption flow rate of 10.0 mL min⁻¹, an elution flow rate of 1.0 mL min⁻¹, and an elution volume of 3.0 mL. Moreover, it was not necessary to adjust the pH of the sample. Under these optimised extraction conditions, good linearity between 5.00 and 30.0 µg L⁻¹ was achieved along with a limit of detection (LOD) of 1.25 µg L⁻¹ and a limit of quantification (LOQ) of 3.79 µg L⁻¹. Furthermore, the reusability of the NPC-PBZ-m column was found up to 8 cycles making it a new cost-effective material for herbicide enrichment. Finally, this developed method was successfully applied to analyse ATZ in water samples from rice fields, fish farms, and natural canal water, with 98–117% relative recoveries. These results indicate that NPC-PBZ-m with our proposed method is feasible and demonstrates its potential application as an effective adsorbent for herbicide enrichment.

KEYWORDS:

• Nanoporous carbons
• polybenzoxazine
• solid-phase extraction
• high-performance liquid chromatography
• atrazine analysis

Acknowledgments

The Scholarship from the Graduate School, Chulalongkorn University to commemorate the 72^nd anniversary of his Majesty King Bhumibala Aduladeja, the 90^th Anniversary Chulalongkorn University Fund (Ratchadaphiseksomphot Endowment Fund), and the collaboration with a research group of Assoc. Prof. Dr. Thanyalak Chaisuwan (The Petroleum and Petrochemical College, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand) are gratefully acknowledged. In addition, W. Alahmad acknowledges the Rachadapisek Sompot Fund for Postdoctoral Fellowship, Chulalongkorn University.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

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Funding

This work was supported by the Chulalongkorn University